


Iconography

by catty_the_spy



Category: The Matrix (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 00:24:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15352134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catty_the_spy/pseuds/catty_the_spy
Summary: Jason Lock, a shrine, and the changing times in Zion.





	Iconography

**Author's Note:**

> Just an idea I had.

It was late. Jason ought to be in bed, but here he was staring at the painting of Neo, taller than the dock gates.

He scoffed at it.

"Don't let Proctor catch you."

Niobe was older now, like he was, grayed and achy and grounded from patrols. She came up to stand beside him, looking down at the shrine.

"I'm not scared of Proctor," he said. "What's he going to do? He can't even see."

"Mmm, but he can lecture. He loves to give lectures."

Proctor was asleep anyway. Only a small scattering of worshipers were around to hear, and they had other things on their minds. One of them walked up while they watched, kneeling to present a small cup of battered weeds.

"My daughter is still in the Matrix. Please watch over her."

He shook his head, but he didn't say anything until she finally walked away.

"The whole thing was a fairy tale made up by the machines. Even Morpheus admits that."

Niobe shrugged. "He still saved us. He still ended the war."

"Allegedly."

She didn't press him to offer a better answer, because they both knew he didn't have one. The machines had returned the Logos, with the bodies. Both Neo and Trinity were buried here.

Instead she said, "The redpills come to us telling stories. Strange men leading them out, who look like he did. Finding people who worship him there - some human and some machine, programs. It doesn't matter if the story was real. He was real."

A man brought a strip of fabric to place at the shrine.

"My daughter is operator on the Icarus. Please keep her safe."

"There's irony too: the one was meant to keep us enslaved; instead he set us free."

Niobe squeezed his shoulder and turned to go home, or to Morpheus.

He ought to leave too. He had work to do for the council. He was getting old, and late nights were harder. If he stayed any longer, the day light would bring a steady stream of people - Proctor, who was better at finding a victim than any blind man had the right to be, or Kid, who came twice a day every day and usually brought his children with him. He was in no mood for lecturing priests or zealots.

And yet, he lingered.

"Neo, my sons are on the Olympus excavation crew. Please take care of them."

"My father refused to exit the Matrix. Tell him that I am okay."

"I believe my sister is still in the Matrix. Please lead her out."

"My mother became a blue pill after the war; please, please help me find her."

"Because of you I have been free for ten years. Thank you."

"Please tell Sati that I'm okay, and that I haven't forgotten her."

Jason Lock scoffed in the face of superstitious nonsense, as he always had.


End file.
